Emergency egress from an aircraft has typically involved ejection seats. Ejection seats offer quick egress, yet have many dangers related to the nature of the method such as the occupant being exposed to injury from impact with aircraft structures during separation, deceleration forces, violent spinning, and environmental factors including windblast, depressurization, extreme temperatures, and lack of oxygen. When multiple ejection seats are involved, sequencing of ejections is critical and the risks are increased.
Another avenue for escape involving aircraft personnel opening a hatch and manually bailing out using a parachute poses additional risks. Releasing seat restraining devices and maneuvering to the hatch in a plane out of control and experiencing violent forces can make it impossible or very dangerous to even reach the hatch. Another risk is the issue of the time required to bail out when mere seconds are critical during an emergency situation. Concepts, which involve an escape pod solve some of the environmental dangers, yet still require the crewmembers to safely reach the pod.
To date, stable ejection seats have been made which include encapsulating seats used on the B58A and XB-70 to protect the crew from aerodynamic forces. Ejectable cockpits have been used on the F-104 and FB-111A to protect the crew during escape at supersonic speeds; however, no ejection seat or actual capsule has been produced with the ability to fly and control the location of a landing.
The disadvantages of the prior art are overcome with this invention for manned vehicles whereby the crew and the passengers are carried in the Aircraft Escape Cabin (AEC) capable of flight independent of the parent vehicle such that all occupants can escape together at any altitude or speed, perform aerodynamic flight, and touch down safely on land or water.
This invention relates to AEC which contains the crew, passengers, the cockpit, aerodynamic surfaces, flight controls, navigation instruments, communication equipment, life support equipment, deceleration devices, survival items, flotation devices, and mechanical and/or rockets to actively separate the AEC from the parent vehicle of which it is an integral and functioning part. The weight of an aircraft is so critical that any practical escape system must be integrally designed into the vehicle such that the systems perform duel roles, ie, operate both during normal flight mode and escape mode. The basic design of this invention works as well for a vehicle with one or numerous occupants.
An object of this invention provides for thermo protection, insulation, and a Jettisonable Maneuvering Rocket (JMR) segment for escape, control and reentry from a space vehicle. The JMR segment provides fuel storage and rockets for maneuvering the parent space vehicle during normal operation modes and is separated from the parent space vehicle with the AEC to provide propulsion when an escape is necessary during an orbital mode. Upon entering the atmosphere where the AEC has aerodynamic control, the rocket segment is jettisoned to reduce weight and avoid the dangers of landing with explosive fuel on board.
Also, guillotined devices are used to sever control lines, linkages, and wiring to allow separation of the AEC from the parent vehicle. The AEC can be attached to the parent vehicle with explosive bolts. An additional method, both unique and preferred, would consist of multiple, non-locking, one directional release, linking and stabilizing devices and one attachment/release mechanism that when released allows the AEC to move along its designed release direction The advantage of this unique method of attachment versus using explosive bolts is its simplicity, less chance of failure, manual operation capability, and design whereby an unexpected explosion of the parent vehicle will naturally force the AEC along the release direction of the non-locking attachment devices and propel the AEC from the explosion without any action from the crew.
Deceleration devices, such as a stabilization-brake parachute and recovery parachute, which are well known to those skilled in the art, are necessary. Once the AEC has reached the desired area to touch down, these chutes can be deployed to lower the AEC whereby impact attenuation devices in the nose can cushion the landing.
In accordance with this invention, deployable wings may be utilized to extend the range and aerodynamic performance of the AEC. These wings would deploy similar to a cruise missile and the aerodynamic control will be provided by a unique feature of this invention, a xe2x80x9cCaneleron,xe2x80x9d which operators as a canard for the parent vehicle and as an elevator/elevon for the AEC when separated from the parent vehicle.
A further advantage of this invention is the separation of the AEC from the main wing of the parent vehicle. In this configuration, the optimum weight and balance can be designed into the AEC. Subsequently, the aircraft designer can calculate in the contribution of the caneleron with the rear elevator to achieve an excellent weight and balance envelope for the parent vehicle. The preferred vehicle will also use a conventional rear elevator; however, some designs may only use the canard or caneleron and will not have a rear elevator. The distance between the caneleron center of lift, relative to the wing and rear elevator is a major design feature, embodied in this invention.
Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention